Trust the Processor: Putting three food processors through their paces
The KitchenAid Matcha (€693) can swallow up to 1kg of all-purpose flour and the quality is perceptible from the first broken egg sliding down into the master 4.8l bowl.
I’m an enthusiastic but sloppy baker and an apprentice preserver. Creating havoc in the kitchen is a nerve-soothing bit of ASMR and I love it.Â
My efforts save on food bills (at least that’s the propaganda), and it’s a perfect way to tickle up some homemade gifting when doing my little social circuit. Lightly dusted in ingredients, I’m never empty-handed on a winter doorstep, even if there’s a barely stifled groan on flipping back the gingham on a mangled bread or erupted drizzle cake. Tip: throw in a fresh 1-euro tea towel to disguise surface damage.
Anyway, I have a new food processor, bought to celebrate my recent super-cheap, DIY kitchen flip, and I managed to ambush two friends into giving me a weekend with their latest mechanical maids. One familiar of many years (you know who you are) had me carry out a test on their “Precious”, under a very watchful eye. Honestly – is there no trust? With pre-Christmas and post-Christmas sales just a few weeks away, this is what I discovered. In terms of actual performance – Sage (Breville), Magimix and KitchenAid are neck and neck.
Don’t get into a worthy, nice little Renault Zoe and then slide into a Model 3 Tesla. They are both cars. They will both get you to where you’re going, but the difference between a solid 7 and a 10 is hard to swallow. With KitchenAids, you need to finesse your budget to the range as they whip up to €1,400, and it’s there in the name – it’s primarily a stand-mixer. Price will depend on the size, wattage and the accessories that come with that model. I tried out the iconic 10-speed Artisan 5KSM175PSBMA (Matcha) in a lively Pistachio Green powered by a 300W motor, under heavy supervision. Tricked up to a processor, it had an extra attachment for prep’, bought for €259. If you’re into bread or anything requiring a dough, you need reliable muscle on call, and with the clunk-click of 100 years of performance in the original planetary motion mixer, the quality is perceptible from the first broken egg sliding down into the master 4.8l bowl. The KitchenAid can swallow up to 1kg of all-purpose flour, the tilt-head mechanism on this die-cast zinc metal and enamel machine lowering the head to order.
The mixer body of this popular work-horse acts as a multipurpose base for culinary tools, lifting it to a full processor. It includes a variety of attachments from slicers and shredders to ice cream and pasta makers, but the prices are eye-watering, up to €269 per device. Their flex-edge beater (5KFE5T) is a good addition (this one came with one) as it softly spatulas cakes, frostings or mashed potatoes, €35, juicers.ie. I could not fault this version. It’s hefty, beautiful, user-friendly and as it can be renovated part by part, it’s a wildly sustainable buy. The industrial design by Egmont Arens, is an acknowledged classic. This one includes a pouring shield to politely add ingredients without splashes. I felt like I was behind the wheel of a (stolen) fine car, caressing the control lever through stirring to whipping.
I vouched for this French-built, 3L machine for my kitchen as the rave customer reviews drew me in. Laying hands on it in-store, it felt like a solid win. It’s sized to cook for up to six people, features quality Sabatier blades, three bowls, and it also takes that full kg of flour, a detail I was looking for before slinging my dough hook. Not all food processors can handle a heavy dough, and every machine will need supervision for success. Magimix claim to have invented the first all-singing and dancing food processor in 1963. It actually outperforms the Artisan for sound, with the rare award of a Quiet Mark, and carries an impressive 30-year guarantee on their 950W commercial grade induction motors, with three years on accessories, just like the KitchenAid. That’s where they part ways, as the MagiMix includes grating and slicing discs. If you want a no-knead, regular food processor in a KitchenAid, they start at €209 for the 5KFP1318BWH with the same capacity as this Magimix, kitchenaid.ie.
The lidded box to store the Magimix 4200Xl accessories is a neat, welcome addition. I’ve run through buns, pitta, light pastry, pie bases, sourdough and pancake mix without difficulty, and a straight-forward bread dough using the Dough Blade, which took under a minute to combine into the correct texture. Crushing ice or walloping out smoothies, the 7.7kg base never wobbles, but at 425mm is relatively high for low cabinets. A full 1kg of carrots can go straight in with one thump, and their Blending Ring sits down into the bowl – brilliant for purees and soup with small ingredients that can evade a chopping blade. With two bowls, two grating discs, and 2mm and 4mm slicing discs, even an atrophied rock of neglected parmesan yielded without fuss. Slices are even and consistent, not riding up on the blade. The company gives excellent support in their features on magimix.co.uk, increasing my level of have-a-go. It has a plastic base – that’s all I have to say. Practical, worthy, honest, but don’t sling it against the wall. It’s streamlined, and handsome enough to live out on the counter.
My dear friend was talked up into this Sage by Heston Blumenthal, when he set out to get a compact, cheaper machine to just pulse-dice onions. It is a grand piece of kit, perfectly described as a universal chef’s armoury, not just a lopper/chopper. Don’t be fooled by its smaller footprint as at 650W it has plenty of welly. I hosted the Sage Paradice 9 over a busy weekend and had a lot of fun and excellent results considering my skill set. Smaller than the others at around 2.1l capacity, this one was housed in a brushed stainless aluminium base over a stainless-steel body, which is also available in black or white, so perfect for most kitchenscapes. I was given a sleek, dedicated, integrated caddy with everything for the machine neatly tucked on board. Don’t you hate thrashing around like you’re calving a cow looking for odd blades in those presses?
Food processors are primarily used for two things – slicing and blending, and this machine comes with a 15-level adjustable slicer (no more CD collection under the counter), reversible shredding disc, French fries disc, a Quad (4-part) blade, dough blade, a mini-blade and bowl. When it comes to curated veggies, the Paradice kit is a joy. Fitted to the Sage base it slices peeled vegetables, finally pushing them through a unique grid for perfect, posh little cubes of parsnips, carrots and all sorts of harder fruit. For everyday chopping, I loved the adjustable 45mm to extra-wide 140mm feed-chute for my smoothies, no stuffing and puffing required. It has a simple spindle device that pops into the vessel to take the adjustable slicer and reversible shredder. It also includes a plastic dough blade (heads up, I’ve discovered on this journey that with care, most premium food processors can manage bread). Finally, I really liked the colour-coded tools – I need all the help I can get and Breville pride themselves on a new “ecosystem” of guided tips, techniques and recipes.
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